Painting 40k...Using only Craft Paint

I'm a big fan of certain colors of Delta Ceramcoat. Not that I use them exclusively, but they have a few paints that hit perfectly and do stuff that more dedicated hobbyist paints don't.

I've been extolling the virtues of inexpensive craft paint for decades. Expensive paint won't make a poor painter better, and even an average painter can achieve acceptable results with craft paint. Bonus for beginners: you get more practice for your buck at a time when you're more likely to end up with a lot of unused paint on your board from inexperience.

Why is he mentioning flavor? Is he tasting them?

I can smell those paints through the screen.

watching him say at the beginning that he doubts it would be any good for painting minis while sitting next to my imperial guard army painted with that exact brand just makes me laugh. From what ive painted and some of the painting with expensive paints ive seen its EXACTLY the same.

I first have a question, this comes from years of model building from all the way back when I was a kid, my dad showed me this, and I usually was too impatient to do it and tended to assemble the kit first and then just put decals on it, but later when I started to really get into building I remembered this tip and it made my life so much easier. You paint the parts while they are still on the spurs, especially if they will be super hard to get to once assembled. I'm curious why I never see any videos of people doing it that way; everyone is painting assembled minis. I can see certain places where you want to make sure your blend matches across the parts, but if you paint them all simultaneously, that will happen anyway, and all you need to work on after assembly is just the joints.

My friends and I used these back in the day; when I say that, I mean way, way, way, way back in the day. We placed Space Marines, before it became Epic 40k, had pretty much all of the armies, from the Space Marines box set to the Epic 40k box set to the Titan Legions box set, and all of the pewter pieces as well, where we lived we had a store that sold this stuff and had games until it went out of business. The only paints we had access to were Walmart apple barrel paints. We painted all of them with them, and they looked good. I did, however, mix in some model paints; I had a great gunmetal and another that was good for exhaust tips and muzzles; some craft paint is utter crap and more water than paint, but this stuff always pleasantly surprised us. Its only downside is that it sticks to some things very, very well, but others not so much. So spraying a top coat of a sealer is highly encouraged. The gold and silver paint also do a good job, and actually look like what they should, or at least a paint of it, far better than just yellow.

I only ever use Folk Art with three Citadel technical paints. I’ve only just started, but I can get some really cool looking battle damage on my Ultramarines.

STOP DRINKING PAINT

Lmao I still paint with craft paint

I felt like a loser for buying apple barrel paints, but i always thought they worked fine. U proved the artist never blames his tools. Great job.

I've been using craft paints right alongside the official hobby paints for 35 years, including the 20 years I was painting professionally, and you literally can't tell which is which. Unless you use GW paints. You can always tell GW paints by the trash quality.

The only citadel paint I've ever owned was from the starter set. Other than that I've always used the $1 paint from Walmart. For battle ready units it actually works pretty well, just make sure you use a water pallet and take your time.

Boy those craft paints are a blast from the past. I started off with those to and actually used a shiny blue thats like 20+ years old to paint my daughters SoB figure in the color of her birth stone. Very surprising how well they worked

I'm gonna say it the apple barrel paint marine looks better

"Priming is not cheating."
No priming is absolutely necessary, unless the gimmick of the chapter is the chipped paint look. That stuff does not stick to plastic. It's probably called for to rough the surfaces even.

Well I just got two full boxes of it for free, I'm gonna find a way to use it.

So I use a mixture of citadel and the paint that comes from michaels. It's fine

I have 3 bottles of Apple Barrel paints I use. Umbra Brown, off white and black.
I use the brown for like the ground and the off white is for my finishing touches of the slap chop method.
And I like the black. Cause it's good to use.

The armt painter cheap 😂 shows how poor i am because i cant afford a $250 for like 20 small bottles

I want to see you paint some miniatures using nail polish or nail paints....

You should do this again but with everything from staples. Paint, brushes, palette, primer everything.

I know I'm super late to this, but I got my start with Apple Barrel paint. My mother uses them for painting ceramics and wood crafts so before I could afford to get my own paints, I used these and had a great time with 'em.

I only use these kind of paints for my minis and I don’t think my minis look too bad

One hour between layers? Meanwhile I enjoyed dry brushing... xD

Add corn starch, or baby powder to cheap craft paints. Helps with coverage and makes them more opaque.

Started painting with the small glass bottle Testor's oil based back in the real early 90s. Given we were painting in a small basement room and were all half-stoned from the fumes, it wasn't terrible and was certainly durable as hell.

When we switched to craft paint it was like a ray of sunlight into that dark basement.

They need a good clear coat. That was the only bad side to using them that we ever saw. Admittedly we were handling the miniatures pretty rough, but we gamed several times a week.


Given that painting background, the only "Miniature" paint I buy are things like washes, quick paints, and effects style paints. For basecoats, these craft paints work just fine. Twenty bottles of craft paint beats the hell out of two bottles of Games Workshop any day.

Craft paints are awesome. If you now how to thin them and have a good acrylic sealer you're set. Anyone that says you need fancy paints is just a talentless snob.

Make your own paint from scratch and then paint a model with it.

In the beginning it sounds like he is talking about food 😂

I've been painting lots of terrain with craft paints recently, and they were well-behaved enough that I started thinking I could use them for minis.

The dreaded “apple paint”. These are the exact same paints that made me quit warhammer for upwards of 2 decades because I didn’t know to thin the paint.

Anyone has the link to the space marine painting video?

I use apple barrel matte white to dry brush alllll the time

I painted my very first figures with craft paints when I was 13. Red and black Ultra Marines. My god they looked terrible.


Your video proves that the paint wasn’t the issue, it was definitely me lol

I use exclusively apple barrel for painting they mix well with air brush thinner and acrylic medium and get awesome results

As someone starting out, this video is absolutely inspiring! Thanks for actually taking the time, your advice and sharing an objective view 🙇🏼‍♂️

The rotoscoping . Fantastic!!

late comment but as im diving into more miniature painting, may I ask why you're not doing sub-assembly and assembling it at once? or is this an older model that you just stripped the paint off and didnt bother taking it apart?

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I use these and Dollar Tree acrylic paints To paint my Mini's and Most of my gundam models Because I mean for the price you really can't complain And the results are actually pretty good Like they're not amazing But you could take these to a tournament And be satisfied with the result you get You're not gonna win a golden demon competition But they still look good for what they are

58 cents a container, just snagged some, you have inspired me.
Wish me luck!

Apple barrel paint Add a little flow medium and distilled water 👍

I only recently got a tau army started up and don’t have a big budget. So I got the craft smart paints, they got a little bit of ceramic or drywall type texture (especially when un thinned.) But for $1 a bottle it is really good to use and I would pretty highly recommend them if you don’t have really any money to spend.

Apple barrels black paint is my go-to black for model painting. I use it for the body suit of my marines and for the black base trim. Not to mention all the black used in goff or vehicles. All my goff orks have black shirts using this paint and it's never failed me

I don't get the love for Vallejo paint. When I tried them they were almost always way too runny, too ages to dry and resulted in a glossy finish. They would also scratch off way easier on my metal models. Do NOT recommend

The question I would have is what could you top coat these paints with? Like a spray gloss, satin, flat. It would add a nice finish and make the figure look just as smooth as if you used the over priced paints I bet 🤔

Well that tells me that my mom's most trustworthy paint will work plus cheap 😸

My mom has always painted with that for my whole life and I'm 21 and as of the moment that's whats laying around the house since I'm new to it like I haven't gotten started yet but will be doing it hopefully soon am wondering how it would turn out